Skip to main content

deskbird Dock: Overview & Setup

deskbird Dock is a lightweight desktop app that automatically sets a user's status to "Office" and checks them into their existing desk and parking bookings as soon as they connect to a recognized office network. When that user is also plugged into a monitor that has been mapped to a desk, Dock narrows the detection from the office down to that exact desk, and books it if the user is not already booked there. No manual check-ins or booking creation are required, and the app runs silently in the background. 

deskbird Dock is powered by deskbird Intelligence, which is now included in all Professional and Enterprise plans at no additional cost. 

📅 Technical support: for questions about deskbird Dock setup and configuration, book a session with our Dock technical expert. These sessions cover deskbird Dock setup and technical questions only. For anything else, please contact deskbird support. Available in English, French and Arabic.

  1. What is deskbird Dock?
  2. Plans and licensing
  3. Prerequisites
  4. Install on macOS
  5. Install on Windows
  6. Set up deskbird Dock
  7. Reference and troubleshooting

1. What is deskbird Dock?

deskbird Dock is a lightweight desktop app for macOS and Windows that runs silently in the background. On Windows, when IT deploys Dock through an MDM solution with pre-configured authentication, the app activates without any user action. On macOS, and for all individual installs, users sign in once. In every case, Dock works in the background afterwards with no further input needed.

Once a user connects to a recognized office network, Dock automatically:

  • Checks the user into their existing flexible-desk and parking bookings for that day. Meeting-room bookings are never checked in automatically.
  • Sets the user's status for that day to "Office", or to "other office" when the detected office is not their primary office.

Once a user plugs into a recognized monitor while connected to a recognized office network, Dock additionally:

  • Creates a desk booking when the detected desk is not the desk the user has booked for that day, including when they have no booking at all. Dock-created bookings run from the moment of detection until the end of the user's booking hours or the office closing time, never a full day.
  • Moves an existing booking to the detected desk when both desks are in the same office. When the detected desk is in a different office, Dock creates a second booking there and leaves the original booking untouched.

⚠️ Important: monitor detection and booking automations rely on active network detection. If a device is connected to a monitor but not to a recognized office network, monitor data is not transmitted, and no automatic check-in or booking occurs.

💡 Note: booking automations require the User authenticated privacy mode, which is included in Professional and Enterprise plans. In the Anonymous privacy mode, Dock still detects office presence, but it cannot check users in or create bookings, because no user identity reaches deskbird. The privacy mode is set company-wide and applies to every user, regardless of how they signed in. See Plans and licensing and Privacy modes and data handling.

For the full detection and automation logic, see How deskbird Dock detects presence and runs booking automations.

2. Plans and licensing

deskbird Dock is powered by deskbird Intelligence, which also drives Dock's presence detection and occupancy analytics. deskbird Intelligence is activated in the product plan of every Professional and Enterprise license. No trial request or separate license is needed.

Professional and Enterprise plans include:

  • Dock capacity at no additional cost: the number of Dock deployments matches your Professional or Enterprise license count 1:1. For example, 300 Professional licenses include 300 Dock deployments.
  • User authenticated privacy mode: activity is linked to individual users, which enables full analytics and booking automations such as automatic check-in and desk booking.

💡 Anonymous privacy mode: if your company needs anonymous, office-only occupancy data (for example, for works council compliance), the Anonymous privacy mode is available through Device-Tier pricing. To switch, contact your deskbird Customer Success Manager (CSM).

Admins can review their plan under Admin > Subscription, where deskbird Dock appears as Dock.

3. Prerequisites

Before deploying deskbird Dock, make sure the following are in place:

  • Plan: an active Professional or Enterprise license. See Plans and licensing.
  • Account: employees must have a deskbird account. In Dock, they sign in with Google, Microsoft, or their deskbird email and password.
  • Check-in: check-in is configured per office, and separately for desks and parking. In an office where check-in is switched off, Dock still sets the user's status to "Office" but checks nobody in.
  • System: macOS or Windows. Some of the behavior described in these articles requires deskbird Dock 0.7.0 or later.
  • Network: the office network must be configured under Admin > deskbird Intelligence > Office detection. See Setting up office detection and network configuration.
  • Floor plan: the floor, area and desk must be active in the floor plan, and the desk must be bookable by the user.
  • Monitors: a monitor can only be mapped to a desk if it reports both a serial number and a product code in its EDID data. Monitors that report blank or all-zero values for either are never sent to deskbird and appear as "Unknown display" in the Dock window, so they cannot be mapped. See Resource detection.
  • Installer: download deskbird Dock from https://dock.deskbird.com/. macOS and Windows are both available, each with an installer for individual users and a separate package for central IT deployment.

4. Install on macOS

Users install deskbird Dock on macOS as follows:

  1. Download and install: download the macOS installer from https://dock.deskbird.com/, open it, and follow the installation steps.
  2. Grant permissions: when prompted, allow location access. If no popup appears, go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services and enable deskbird Dock. macOS requires this permission before any app can read the Wi-Fi network name, so without it every office rule built on a Wi-Fi network name (SSID) or access point (BSSID) silently fails to match. After granting access, it can take a few minutes before macOS delivers the first location reading and Dock can see the network name.
  3. Sign in: after an interactive installation, the app opens automatically. Users sign in through their browser with Google, Microsoft, or their deskbird email and password.
  4. Open the app: the deskbird Dock icon appears in the top-right menu bar. Clicking it opens a small panel with the detected office and connected devices. Open app opens the full Dock window.

💡 Tip: if the icon is not visible, free up space in the menu bar via System Settings > Control Center.

There is no separate consent or first-run step. The sign-in screen explains what Dock collects: "We detect your connected networks and monitors to confirm your office presence."

5. Install on Windows

Users install deskbird Dock on Windows as follows:

  1. Download and install: download the Windows installer (.exe) from https://dock.deskbird.com/ and run it. The .msi on the same page is for central IT deployment only. If a "Windows protected your PC" warning appears, click "More info", then "Run anyway". The installer is signed by deskbird GmbH, and the warning is SmartScreen's reputation check on a newly released version.
  2. Grant permissions (Windows 11, version 24H2 and later): open Settings > Privacy & security > Location, turn on location services, and turn on "Let desktop apps access your location".
  3. Sign in: after an interactive installation, the app opens automatically. Users sign in through their browser with Google, Microsoft, or their deskbird email and password.
  4. Open the app: the deskbird Dock icon appears in the bottom-right system tray (click the ^ arrow if hidden). Clicking it opens a small panel with the detected office and connected devices. Open app opens the full Dock window.

⚠️ Important: without the location permission, Dock cannot read the Wi-Fi network name (SSID) or the access point (BSSID), so office detection rules that use them never match and the office looks empty. Dock shows a warning on its Overview page when the permission is missing.

💡 Note: when Dock is deployed silently via MDM, users do not see the deskbird Dock icon in the system tray until their next interactive sign-in. Locking and unlocking the screen is not enough. Users do not need to launch it, as Dock keeps running in the background, but it remains available in the Start menu and through app search.

💡 Tip: for large rollouts, enterprise IT teams can deploy deskbird Dock silently at scale via Microsoft Intune, with authentication pre-configured so users never see a sign-in screen. See Deploying deskbird Dock via Microsoft Intune.

There is no separate consent or first-run step. The sign-in screen explains what Dock collects: "We detect your connected networks and monitors to confirm your office presence."

6. Set up deskbird Dock

The Setup guide is a checklist built into deskbird that walks admins through every step needed to get deskbird Dock and deskbird Intelligence up and running:

  1. Install deskbird Dock: download and install Dock on every device. See Install on macOS and Install on Windows.
  2. Define privacy settings: choose how much personal data Dock collects, from user-level tracking in the User authenticated privacy mode to full anonymity in the Anonymous privacy mode. See Privacy modes and data handling.
  3. Detect office presence: configure the network signals for each office location. See Setting up office detection and network configuration.
  4. Map monitors to desks: map monitors manually, or use auto-mapping, where Dock learns which monitor belongs to which booked desk. See Resource detection.
  5. Understand occupancy analytics: view actual workforce attendance and office utilization data. See Occupancy analytics (deskbird Dock analytics).

Where to find the Setup guide:

  • During onboarding: in Intelligence, and under Admin > deskbird Intelligence > Setup guide. The Overview dashboard appears directly below the Setup guide.
  • After onboarding is completed: anytime under User profile > Setup guide, or through the Setup guide link in the header of the Overview dashboard. The Setup guide is removed from the main navigation, and the Overview dashboard is shown first.

Track setup progress with the Overview dashboard: the Overview shows office detection status and desk mapping progress for all offices on one page, flags offices and monitors with conflicts, and links directly to office detection and resource detection to fix them. See deskbird Intelligence: Overview dashboard.

💡 Tip: for more complex setups, book a session with our Dock technical expert.

Installing the app is only half the job. The following articles cover each configuration step in detail. Without office detection in particular, Dock is installed but detects nothing.

  1. Setting up office detection and network configuration: link your office networks so Dock knows which office a device is in. Required for everything else.
  2. Resource detection: map monitors to desks so Dock can check users in at the exact desk and create bookings.
  3. Privacy modes and data handling: understand how much personal data Dock collects in each privacy mode, and which automations and analytics each mode unlocks.
  4. Deploying deskbird Dock via Microsoft Intune: optional. For large Windows rollouts, deploy Dock centrally so users never see a sign-in screen.

7. Reference and troubleshooting

Need more help? Contact us here.

Return to top